Pope Leo XIV Rejects Military Domination as Foreign to the Way of Christ

Pope Leo XIV drew a sharp theological line between Christianity and military conquest this week, declaring in a homily that the church's mission has too often been "distorted by a desire for domination, entirely foreign to the way of Jesus Christ" — words that landed with unmistakable force against the backdrop of an active American military campaign in the Middle East.

The remarks came during the chrism Mass at St. Peter's Basilica on April 2, where Leo addressed nearly 1,000 priests gathered for Holy Thursday observances. Without naming Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth directly, the first American-born pope issued what amounted to a public rebuttal of the defense secretary's call for citizens to pray "every day, on bended knee" for U.S. military victory "in the name of Jesus Christ."

Leo framed the stakes in sweeping terms, casting the Christian mission as an antidote to what he called the "imperialist occupation of the world." "Consequently, it is now a priority to remember that neither in the pastoral sphere nor in the social and political spheres can good come from abuse of power," he told the assembled clergy.

The homily extended that critique of power into a diagnosis of human pride. "We tend to consider ourselves powerful when we dominate, victorious when we destroy our equals, great when we are feared," Leo said, before arguing that Christ's example runs in precisely the opposite direction. "The imperialist occupation of the world is thus disrupted from within. The violence that until now has been the law is unmasked."

Since the United States and Israel began bombing Iran in late February, Leo has repeatedly called for a return to dialogue and an end to the violence. His Holy Thursday address marked his most direct theological challenge yet to the framework Hegseth has used to rally Christian support for the war effort, presenting military dominance not as an expression of faith but as a corruption of it.

The split between Washington's war-time religious rhetoric and the Vatican's theological response reflects a widening rift over how Christianity applies to armed conflict — one that the first American pope is now navigating from Rome in real time, with American bombs still falling.